Augustine 400ish AD “But it has been declared by thy Son, the Truth, that“whosoever shall say to his brother, You fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire.” And there would be doom even for the life of a praiseworthy man if thou judgedst it withthy mercy set aside. But since thou dost not so stringently inquire after our sins, wehope with confidence to find some place in thy presence. But whoever recounts hisactual and true merits to thee, what is he doing but recounting to thee thy owngifts? Oh, if only men would know themselves as men, then “he that … Continue reading If it weren’t for mercy

Augustine 400 AD “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” – 1 John 1:5 Continue reading We are not that Light

Augustine 400 AD “[1] O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. [2] Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. [3] Thou compassest my path and my lying down, And art acquainted with all my ways. [4] For there is not a word in my tongue, But, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. [5] Thou hast beset me behind and before, And laid thine hand upon me. [6]  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain unto it. [7] Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or … Continue reading The Omnipotent

Augustine 400 AD “Cast yourself on him; fear not. He will not flinch and you will not fall. Cast yourself on him without fear, for he will receive and heal you.” Continue reading Why stand in your own strength…

Augustine 400 AD “And it was now a joy to put away what I formerly feared to lose.For thou didst cast them away from me, O true and highest Sweetness. Thou didstcast them away, and in their place thou didst enter in thyself–sweeter than allpleasure, though not to flesh and blood; brighter than all light, but more veiled thanall mystery; more exalted than all honor, though not to them that are exalted intheir own eyes. Now was my soul free from the gnawing cares of seeking andgetting, of wallowing in the mire and scratching the itch of lust. And I … Continue reading Without the sweetness of trifles

Augustine 400 AD “The enemy held fast mywill, and had made of it a chain, and had bound me tight with it. For out of theperverse will came lust, and the service of lust ended in habit, and habit, notresisted, became necessity. By these links, as it were, forged together–which is whyI called it “a chain”–a hard bondage held me in slavery. But that new will whichhad begun to spring up in me freely to worship thee and to enjoy thee, O my God,the only certain Joy, was not able as yet to overcome my former willfulness, madestrong by long … Continue reading The chain of my own will

Augustine 400 AD “God is good, yea, most mightily and incomparably better than all his works. But yet he who is good has created them good; behold how he encircles and fills them. Where, then, is evil, and whence does it come and how has it crept in? What is its root and what its seed? Has it no being at all? Why, then, do we fear and shun what has no being? Or if we fear it needlessly, then surely that fear is evil by which the heart is unnecessarily stabbed and tortured–and indeed a greater evil since we … Continue reading And I kept seeking…

Augustine 400 AD from his confessions “For thou, thou only (for who else is it who calls us back from thedeath of all errors except the Life which does not know how to die and the Wisdomwhich gives light to minds that need it, although it itself has no need of light–by which the whole universe is governed, even to the fluttering leaves of the trees?)–thou alone providedst” “Thy word is truth” Jesus 30 AD “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” Jesus 30 AD “In the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and … Continue reading Who else…

Augustine 400 AD “Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; And let thy judgments help me.” – Psalm 119:175 “Have mercy upon me, O LORD; Consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death: That I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in thy salvation.” – Psalm 9:13-14 “Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: And my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips; And … Continue reading Let my soul cleave…

Augustine 400 AD “Let them, therefore, turn back and seek thee, because even if they have abandoned thee, their Creator, thou hast not abandoned thy creatures. Let them turn back and seek thee–and lo, thou art there in their hearts, … Continue reading Thou art near even…